Local news in the classroom: Weekly roundup 9/30/2025
Here’s the weekly educator update designed just for high school educators – where we hand-pick several stories that we think will resonate with you and your students – especially those that might spur discussion. These alerts also highlight different resources we offer, such as our upcoming journalism scholarship program, lesson plans and curriculum, in-class workshop options and more. We want to make using Lookout in the classroom easy!
Now, onto the news: As fall brings both new funding debates on campus and renewed fire concerns in our mountains, questions about how Santa Cruz prepares for the future—whether in research or in community safety – are front and center. We are seeing many big-picture issues shaping our community that are unfolding close to home. Despite recouped research funds, worry persists at UCSC and other UCs about the future of federal interference with funding. In the Santa Cruz mountains, volunteer efforts did save homes during the 2020 CZU fire, but Cal Fire maintains that weather shifts and fire unpredictability make the risk of staying behind to help not worth it. Read this week’s highlighted stories and some discussion questions you may want to use with your students.
This week’s highlighted stories
UCSC recovers some funding cut by Trump, but research disruption roils campus
Why it matters: UCSC has regained $25 million of its research funding that was illegally terminated by the Trump administration. However, even its brief absence has created ensuing significant challenges to research and training programs.
In the classroom: What challenges arise from university research funding being so precarious? Consider ground-breaking work put on hold, researchers without job stability, difficulties in keeping teams together, and projects scrambling for new funding. Ask students to put themselves in the role of someone hired for a research position. Would they want to take the risk of accepting a position that might not exist in a few months?
The Renegades saved homes during CZU. Five years later, emergency responders still call it the wrong move
Why it matters: Hundreds of residents in the Santa Cruz mountains, referred to as the “Renegades,” went against evacuation orders during the CZU fire of 2020 and instead defended against the fires themselves, saving neighbors’ homes, but Cal Fire deputy chief reasserts the danger of ignoring evacuation orders and possibility of impeding official emergency responses.
In the classroom: Allow students to dissect how multiple things can be true at once – both respect for the courage of community volunteers and their fire-quelling actions and criticism of how dangerous their heroics were. How did their actions put themselves in danger and add complications to emergency response decisions?
Local news makes learning personal. By weaving stories like these into lessons, students see how policy choices and community voices influence their own paths and futures.
More current events to use in your classroom
Here’s a roundup of recent articles that could help you with your students, or ones you could use in your classroom. Interested in more stories? Browse all our recent coverage here.
LOCAL NEWS
RTC risks losing up to $80 million in grants in bid to tame rail trail costs, report says
By Max Chun
The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission is set to hear a report that outlines ways to reduce costs and modify the project delivery of Coastal Rail Trail Segments 8 through 11 at its Thursday meeting.
For Capitola’s first female police chief, childhood lessons shape a vision for progressive policing culture
By Ruby Lee Schembari
A former high school volleyball player and social worker who grew up in the San Lorenzo Valley with two mothers, Sarah Ryan brings a diverse perspective to her role as only the second woman to lead a law enforcement agency in Santa Cruz County’s history.
Watsonville activist nears end of monthlong hunger strike after brief hospitalization
By Tania Ortiz
Tuesday marks the final day of Watsonville activist Omar Dieguez’s monthlong hunger strike to protest the application of pesticides near schools in the Pajaro Valley. On Friday, Dieguez checked into the hospital after experiencing intense stomach pain, but told Lookout that he’s feeling better and on track to finish out his fast.
CALIFORNIA NEWS
Why figuring out how many homes California needs is more art than science
By Ben Christopher / CalMatters
56,000. 2.7 million. 840,000. Why is one of California’s most pressing policy problems so hard to measure?
Can an AI-guided robot help a California city resist sea-level rise and sequester carbon?
By Jennifer Ugwa / Inside Climate News
A San Rafael startup proposed a sci-fi solution to raise areas facing the twin threats of land subsidence and sea-level rise. Some officials and experts are skeptical.
Student Stories
Why events like Trades Day are essential for Santa Cruz students’ futures
UCSC student Cathy Romero shares information about Trades Day from her perspective as an intern at Your Future is our Business.
EDUCATOR RESOURCES
Talking with students about shocking or disturbing news: Teachers’ essential guide to viral online challenges
From Common Sense Media, this article provides practical guidance for helping young people process unsettling events. With age-appropriate strategies, it emphasizes listening, creating safe spaces, and teaching media literacy so students can navigate tough news with support and understanding.
Book a class visit with Lookout Santa Cruz
We’d love to visit your classroom! Lookout staff can come to your classroom and lead a workshop about various different things from journalism to elections. These workshops last the length of one class period and are a great way to get your students engaged in different aspects of learning.
Thank you for all the hard work you do in the community and for supporting our educational programs, helping the younger generations learn media literacy skills and become invested community members and democratic citizens. If you’d like to learn more about our school programs, get more involved or have any questions, please reach out to Director of Student and Community Engagement, Jamie Garfield, jamie@lookoutlocal.com.
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